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By Brad Cook How would you like to build Rome in a day? Actually, forget that — How would you like to build an entire empire in a day?
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 Your empire
awaits you. |
Now you can, without even leaving home. Just load MacSoft’s Civilization III — one of only two games that received the coveted Best of Show award at
Macworld San Francisco 2002 — in Mac OS 9 or Mac OS X and lead one of 16
civilizations to world domination. If you’re skilled enough, you might even
become the first person to colonize nearby solar system Alpha Centauri.
This game is the third in the wildly popular Civilization series, which began in 1990 when designer Sid Meier created the first Civilization game. Since then, the turn-based strategy franchise has attracted a legion of fans and the games have become progressively more complicated and intricate.
Build and expand your glorious empire.
“In Civilization III,” explains Meier, “our goals were to keep the
light-hearted elements of Civilization and the depth of Civilization II,
refine and improve them, and add many new features and ideas. [So we have]
an enhanced trade system, more powerful combat, the new concept of culture,
greatly expanded diplomacy, and a unique and innovative world map generator.”
“We wanted to take the game to the next level and create the ultimate Civilization experience, and I think we have.”
Listen to Your Advisors
Don’t worry if you’re a newcomer to the series, though: there’s a handy tutorial that walks you through the expansion of your budding civilization. And even if you’re a seasoned veteran of past global conflicts, you’ll appreciate the six advisors — science, cultural, foreign, military, trade, and domestic — who offer advice as your civilization grows.
A wealth of information is always at your disposal.
You usually begin the game with a single settler. His first task should be to found a city, which will produce more settlers as well as workers, archers, soldiers, and other “little people.” The workers can build roads and colonies, mine precious resources, irrigate the land and plant forests, while the settlers can create more cities. The other characters are useful for exploring and even attacking other civilizations.
Aggression isn’t always the best means to an end, however. When you make contact with another civilization, its leader will appear on the screen and offer to trade some of his or her resources for some of yours. Each civilization begins the game with strengths in certain areas (see “The Civilizations of Civilization III” for more information), so it may behoove you to reinforce one of your weaknesses by trading a technology or resource you’re rich in.
Your advisors will also appear onscreen and let you know, for example, how technologically advanced the other civilization is or whether your forces outnumber theirs. You can choose to work with the other leader, rebuff him or her, or simply declare war.
Transported to a Different World
The game begins in the year 4000 BC and ends in the year 2050 CE (assuming no one wins the game before then; more on that in a moment).
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As your civilization progresses through time, it becomes more powerful and more advanced. Eventually, you can build wonders both great and small, including a SETI program, the Hoover Dam, or the Hanging Gardens (great), and Wall Street, a heroic epic poem, or the Apollo space program (small).
Seek counsel from your advisors.
“The Civilization games require hours or even days of play on any individual map,” says Nate Birkholz, product coordinator at MacSoft, “and you usually end up investing heavily in the outcome of the game. Ultimately, the Civilization games create a real sense of ‘place,’ a feeling that the geography you are inhabiting in the game is important and almost real.
“You’re transported to a different world.”
There are several ways to win the game, and not all of them require you to go to war. Diplomacy skills are just as important as military might in Civilization III, and you’ll need to keep your people happy or internal strife will ruin your plans for world domination. (See “Six Ways to Win” on page two for more details.)
Explains Meier: “I still enjoy the thrilling military conquest that’s been a part of the Civ series from the beginning, but now the diplomatic victory is as strategically challenging and fun as playing a military-focused game.”
Mac OS X: A Bright Future
Birkholz favors a mixture of tactics to win the game: “Brute force early, diplomacy in the middle, and then a combination of strategies in the end game.” He also recommends playing Civilization III in Mac OS X, which he says has “a bright future.”
He adds that, under Mac OS X, the game features “enhanced graphics and text [thanks to] the Quartz display layer. Text is antialiased, graphics are crisp and colorful, and the overall appearance is much more smooth.
Lead your civilization where no civilization has gone before.
“Additionally,” he adds, “the Mac OS X file system improves loading times dramatically, making saving and loading of games much, much faster.”
Need advice for a place to pick up Civilization III? Click over to the Apple Store, visit your Apple retail store, or search for an Apple authorized reseller. You’ll find someone who can help you become the next Alexander the Great.
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What civilizations are available for you to choose from? How can you lead them to success? Read on.    |